The Technomancer

The Technomancer is an Action RPG from 2016 that stresses GPUs heavily, and this pairing of an Intel Core Ultra 7 265 with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 produces a very specific set of performance constraints. The benchmark data shows a system that is capable of smooth 1080p play at most settings but struggles to maintain playable framerates at 4K. The GTX 1070, with its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus, is the clear limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the 20-core CPU provides more than enough headroom for this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Technomancer?

A: The data indicates 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all settings presets achieve at least 60 FPS on average. At 2560x1440, only the Low preset (76 FPS) and High preset (50 FPS) remain in a playable range, while 3840x2160 sees all presets drop below 42 FPS.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 117 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 60 FPS. This represents a 57 FPS drop, meaning the Ultra preset delivers roughly half the framerate of Low settings at this resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data strongly indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The GTX 1070 sits in the 47th percentile of all GPUs, while the Core Ultra 7 265 sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. The framerate scales dramatically with resolution and settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Technomancer?

A: No, not at playable framerates. At 3840x2160, the best average FPS is 42 on Low settings, dropping to 21 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a range of 27 to 37 FPS, indicating significant stutter potential.

Q: What is the framerate range for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 averages 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS. This makes it the most consistent preset for 1440p, though it hovers right at the edge of smooth gameplay.

Q: How does this system rank overall for this game?

A: This specific combo ranks 2336 out of 2825 tested combinations for The Technomancer. This places it in the lower half of all tested systems, which is consistent with the GTX 1070's mid-range standing.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and smooth gameplay, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the clear choice. The data shows this combination delivers an average of 90 FPS, with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS. This keeps framerates well above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays while offering better visual fidelity than Low settings. The High preset at 1080p also works well at 77 FPS average, but the Medium preset provides a larger buffer against framerate dips.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. The Low preset achieves 76 FPS, which is smooth, but visually compromised. The Medium preset averages 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS, meaning some scenes will dip below 60 FPS. For a consistent experience at 1440p, Low is the safer recommendation. The High preset at 50 FPS average is playable for those who prioritize visuals, but expect noticeable slowdowns in busy areas.

Avoid Ultra at any resolution above 1080p. The data shows Ultra at 1440p averages 39 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 21 FPS. Even at 1080p, Ultra averages exactly 60 FPS, which leaves no headroom for demanding scenes. If you want to use Ultra, be prepared to accept occasional stutter. The measured data suggests that Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot for this hardware, offering near-Ultra quality for a fraction of the performance cost.

Resolution Scaling

The framerate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system heavily constrained by the GPU. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 77 at 1920x1080 to 50 at 2560x1440, then plummets to 27 at 3840x2160. This represents a 35% drop when moving to 1440p and a further 46% drop when moving to 4K. The scaling is not linear, indicating that memory bandwidth and fill rate are becoming critical bottlenecks at higher resolutions.

The Low preset shows similar behavior. It goes from 117 FPS at 1080p to 76 FPS at 1440p, then down to 42 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is particularly telling — even with the lowest visual settings, the GTX 1070 cannot maintain a smooth framerate. The GTX 1070's 256.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 107.7 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient for the pixel count at 3840x2160.

The Medium preset provides the most complete data, showing a minimum FPS at each resolution. At 1080p, it averages 90 FPS with a 76 FPS minimum. At 1440p, the average drops to 59 FPS with a 50 FPS minimum. At 4K, the average falls to 32 FPS with a 27 FPS minimum. The minimum FPS values consistently sit about 15-16% below the average, suggesting that the GPU's performance is relatively stable but that frame pacing becomes more erratic as resolution increases. The data indicates this is a GPU-bound scenario, as the CPU's performance metrics are far above what this game requires.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system performs admirably across all presets. The Low preset delivers an average of 117 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth. Medium averages 90 FPS, with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS. High averages 77 FPS, while Ultra averages exactly 60 FPS. All presets at 1080p are playable, though Ultra leaves no margin for error.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops become more pronounced. Low averages 76 FPS, which is still smooth. Medium averages 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS. High averages 50 FPS, and Ultra drops to 39 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, showing a 17 FPS spread between the lowest and highest frames.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles across the board. Low averages 42 FPS, Medium averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS and maximum of 37 FPS, High averages 27 FPS, and Ultra averages 21 FPS. None of these are suitable for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset's minimum of 27 FPS indicates that even the most modest scenes at 4K will feel choppy. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 21 FPS, which is significant but still leaves the best option below playable thresholds.

The overall trend is clear: this system is built for 1080p gaming in The Technomancer. The 1440p results are marginal at best, and the 4K results are effectively unplayable. Users with 1440p or 4K displays should strongly consider using resolution scaling or accepting Low settings for the best experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the defining component in this system's performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p but insufficient for 4K. The GPU's base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz are typical of the Pascal architecture, and the 1920 shading units provide 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

The benchmark data shows the GTX 1070 in the 47th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 9780. Its nearest rivals are the AMD FirePro W5000 (0.2% faster), NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (0.5% faster), NVIDIA Tesla M10 (0.6% slower), and NVIDIA Tesla C2070 (0.7% slower). This places the GTX 1070 in a tight performance band, with no significant advantage over its immediate competitors.

In The Technomancer, the GPU's limitations become apparent at higher resolutions. The 27 FPS average at 4K High settings, compared to 77 FPS at 1080p High, shows that the GPU's pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s is the limiting factor. The texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s is also stressed at 4K, contributing to the dramatic framerate drops. The 8 GB VRAM is not the primary constraint here, as even the Low preset at 4K only achieves 42 FPS, indicating that raw compute and bandwidth are the bottlenecks.

The GTX 1070 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which means it can run The Technomancer with all modern API features. However, the game's age means it likely doesn't take full advantage of these features, further emphasizing that traditional rasterization performance is what matters most for this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 provides overwhelming CPU performance for this game. With 20 cores and 20 threads, it has more than enough processing power to handle The Technomancer's workload. The base clock of 2.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz give it excellent single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5960.

The CPU's benchmark results place it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64640. Its nearest rivals are the AMD EPYC 4464P (0.3% slower), Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (0.3% faster), AMD EPYC 7343 (0.7% faster), and AMD EPYC 9124 (0.7% slower). The Core Ultra 7 265 sits in a tight cluster with these server-class CPUs, showing that it has no performance deficit in synthetic benchmarks.

In The Technomancer, the CPU's role is minimal. The framerate data shows consistent scaling with resolution and settings, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth are more than sufficient for this title. The PassMark multithread score of 49682 and single-thread score of 4689 suggest that even the most demanding CPU-heavy scenes in the game would not tax this processor.

The 65 W TDP of the Core Ultra 7 265 is notably low for a 20-core processor, thanks to its 3 nm process node from TSMC. This efficiency does not come at the cost of performance, as the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42216 demonstrates. For The Technomancer, the CPU is essentially a non-factor — the GTX 1070 is the sole determinant of playable framerates, and any CPU from the past several generations would likely deliver identical results in this pairing.